ANTONIO STRANGIO, the dangerous 'Ndrangheta fugitive arrested in Bali on February 2, was brought back to Italy today by the Indonesian police.
He had lived in Australia since 2016 and the desire to take a beach holiday and the tranquility of going unnoticed among the many tourists set him up.
He is the forty-third criminal captured in the world in less than 3 years thanks to the strategy promoted by the Italian Department of Public Security together with Interpol with the I CAN project (Interpol Cooperation Against 'Ndrangheta).
“We'll catch them all, it's just a matter of time. We have been working for three years with the police forces of thirteen countries of the world who did not previously know the danger" said the Prefect Vittorio Rizzi, Central Director of the Criminal Police and creator of the I CAN Project.
"However, the task of the police force does not end with the capture of criminals, we must deprive the mafias of oxygen by striking at the illicit assets they have accumulated all over the world, returning them to the communities. We are working with all the tools, both penal and administrative, in Italy and around the world, to prevent and counter the infiltration of organized crime into the economic fabric. It is a challenge that we cannot lose because our rebirth is at stake, also through the funds of the PNRR” continues Prefect Rizzi.
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If the criminal organizations have become real multinationals that operate on the markets, bypassing the obstacles aimed at guaranteeing free competition, infiltrating the economic fabric through financial speculation and the corruption of government apparatuses, then it is necessary to align the legal systems because the fragility of a system can pose a threat to everyone, with a domino effect that the virus has sadly taught us.
THEItalian initiative presented by the Central Directorate of the Criminal Police to the European Network on the Administrative Approach (ENAA) serves precisely to encourage an administrative exchange of information between European countries, which is the fastest way to give back to society the resources accumulated by organized crime. This initiative was immediately accepted by the Swedish rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, considering the administrative approach to fight against organized crime the priority of its mandate.
The financial trail, according to that “follow the money” indicated by the judge Giovanni Falcone, it must not be limited to the borders of the European Union but tools are needed that can be valid on all continents. And the resolution proposed by Italy, presented by Prefect Rizzi at the ninetieth General Assembly of Interpol and approved unanimously for the introduction of the SILVER NOTICE in the databases available to the police forces, responds to this strategy, aimed at facilitating the seizure and the confiscation of illicit assets of organized crime.
"The Italian police forces worked together so that in the current four-year period (2022-2025) the High Risk Criminal Network was included for the first time as a European priority, which finally lights up the global danger represented by mafia-type organizations.
Next year, in 2024, Italy will receive the baton from Belgium, co-driver of the same action, to assume its operational leadership and to plan the European funding allocated to prevent and combat drug trafficking, clandestine immigration, human trafficking human beings, fraud and money laundering carried out by organized crime” Prefect Rizzi closes.